Sand from Iwo Jima

I have received a small jar of sand from Iwo Jima from a veteran. I would like to incorporate it in ceramic pieces to give to veterans at my VFW post. Does anyone have any ideas of how to use it in low fire pottery? I have only ever fired at 04 and 06. Should I use it in glaze or the clay body? If you have never seen or heard about this sand, it is volcanic, may have metal in it, and appears to the eye as dark, pepper-like, gravel-sized particles. Pretty sure you can't throw it, but I prefer hand- building anyway. Any ideas about what would happen? Is it safe?

I think you could wedge it into your clay. Do a test first.
I used Baltic Sea sand when I was in Latvia. We ran out of clay. I mixed Chamotte (a gritty high fire clay) and earthenware with the beach sand. I ended up with a stoneware and was able to make several pieces for the exhibition at the end of the residency.
In your case I would stay in the lowfire range.

in a glaze, sand is just granular silica ... you will need something to make it more refined for glazing as it will come through the glaze in an un-satisfactory way. sand is traditionally around 80-100 grit while siliica usually starts around 300 and goes up ... so with that in mind ... you can try dry ball milling the sand for a few days in a porcelain container then sifting out anything bigger than 200 grit ... there you go ... sand from Iwo Jima in a course silica state.

Otherwise, use in your clay body. A salt fire clay body uses sand instead of grog since the sodium fumes repel off of the course silica creating that salt fired orange peel people desire ... otherwise it's just like grog.

I think you could wedge it into your clay. Do a test first. I used Baltic Sea sand when I was in Latvia. We ran out of clay. I mixed Chamotte (a gritty high fire clay) and earthenware with the beach sand. I ended up with a stoneware and was able to make several pieces for the exhibition at the end of the residency.In your case I would stay in the lowfire range.